In general the invention relates to the outdoor cooking of food in shish kabob style. More specifically, the invention relates to a shish kabob rotisserie having a plurality of skewers which is adaptable as an attachment over the fireboxes of outdoor grills. More particularly, the invention relates to a skewer having a double-tined resilient skewer member attachable to a center skewer rod to securely hold food during rotisserie cooking.
Outdoor shish kabob cooking is a well-known technique. Usually a pointed skewer rod is pushed through a variety of small items to be cooked. Then, the skewer holding the food is placed onto or over a grill and periodically turned by hand for even cooking. Some devices provide for the rotisserie cooking by rotating a skewer over a grill.
A concern in shish kabob cooking is to prevent the food from spinning on the skewer rod as it cooks. If the foodstuff to be cooked spins on the skewer rod it does not evenly cook and may, such as in the case of certain vegetables, become detached and fall into the charcoal, or onto the hot grill.
Due to the inherent tedium in turning each shish kabob, large volume shish kabob roasting devices have heretofore not met with success. It is initially time consuming to pierce a variety of foods on a skewer, then evenly cook them, and lastly remove them for eating. At large outdoor social activities, such as club picnics, fairs, carnivals, and the like, shish kabob food creates a very labor intensive undertaking by the food preparer in cutting, handling, skewering the items and then rotating the kabobs during roasting. Typically, a shish kabob involves the cooking of cubed size pieces of beef or fowl along with tomatoes, shrimp, potatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, and a variety of other items. Usually, in this style of cooking the food item is about the size of the palm of one's hand or smaller.
Larger items might also be held on a skewer rod and cooked over a grill, such as chicken, cornish game hen, duck and the like. Naturally, these larger items require that they be firmly secured and not spin during cooking. It would be desirable to be able to provide for the simultaneous shish kabob cooking of the typical smaller items along with the contemporaneous rotisserie cooking of these larger items without the need for changing equipment or manner of operation, so that a uniform technique can be undertaken for all items to be cooked in a rotisserie arrangement.
It is therefore a paramount object of the invention to provide a device that is adaptable for use as an attachment over the firebox of outdoor and indoor grills, typically of a rectangular shape, which can accommodate a plurality of skewers to be rotated.
It is a key object of the invention to provide a driving assembly for skewer rods which may arranged parallel to one another in relatively close formation, so that a plurality of shish kabob prepared foodstuffs can be achieved.
It is an important goal of the invention to provide a double skewer member resiliently engageable to a larger center skewer rod that is driven by a rotisserie assembly.
It is a concomitant object of the invention to provide a double skewer member that holds two sets of kabobs, each skewered on a separate tine and both tines resiliently attached to the driven center skewer rod.
It is a further goal of the invention to provide a double skewer assembly engageable to a rotisserie apparatus for rotation above a source of heat.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide for the securement of a larger food item, such as a chicken, duck, etc., on a center supporting skewer rod by resilient fastening at a double skewer member in order that rotisserie style cooking may take place without the foodstuff spinning on the skewer.
It is also an object of the invention to hold the typically smaller kabob items on the tines of a double skewer member in a spring-like grip to prevent free-spinning of the food items during cooking in order to attain uniform cooking.
It is an allied goal of the invention to provide for a portable and detachable shish kabob rotisserie device having extending handles so that the device may be easily attached at grill support panels over the firebox of an outdoor grill.
It is a related object of the invention to provide an attachable shish kabob rotisserie device enabling the individual engagement and disengagement of double skewers and supporting skewer rods to be made so that cooking at different locations and durations over the firebox can be undertaken.
It is also a goal of the invention to provide an attachable shish kabob rotisserie device that permits larger food items to be cooked in combination with the usual smaller items in the same operation without changing apparatus or manner of operation.